by Ms. Lawit (advisor)

Sophomores and juniors establish school’s first online news paper, The Kurt Hahn Chronicle, after participating in a special summer explore week focused on civic journalism.

In order to prepare to launch the paper, students learned about civic journalism.  ”A civic journalist,” sophomore Sophia R. explained, “is someone who can take what they know and incorporate it into the world that’s around them.”  Najee J. and Sophia R. said they are not civic journalists yet, but that through hard work and practice they hope to someday become them.  As part of their journalist training, students developed their interview skills, and learned how to write a news article.  Sophomore, Sophia W. was surprised by the work, but excited to try something new and meet new people.

Students also visited the offices of online school news website, GothamSchools.  There, students interviewed GothamSchools writer Philissa Cramer, who has been writing for a paper since she was a junior in high school. She described the daily life of a journalist, and offered the following advice to students: “do as much practice as you can,…and read the news.  That’s how you get a sense and build it into yourself how a news story works.”  Sophomore Justin V., was surprised by the opportunity to “interview the interviewers.”

The Kurt Hahn Chronicle will differ from traditional school papers because it will be published online, and include features designed to make the site more fun and dynamic such as polls, photos, videos, and a calendar.

Students at the Kurt Hahn School were enthusiastic about the new site.  Junior, Hashakay V. looks forward to reading about, “school activities, trips, things going on in the school like Student Led Conferences, different school meetings, community meeting.”  Another junior, Xavier W., added the paper will help students, “stay alert and know what’s going on in the school.”

Teacher, Mr. Latour thinks the paper will help the students working on the paper develop their writing skills, and teach all students the importance of substantiating facts and not reacting to rumors and hearsay.  Student journalist and junior Najee J. hopes that The Kurt Hahn Chronicle will help “Kurt Hahn students know what is going on in the school, so they can better themselves.”

New staff (from left to right, Sophia R., Najee J., Justin V., & Sophia W.) work on news stories.